Status: Core study Faith & Logic Published September 3, 2026 Updated September 3, 2026
Metaphysics (Greek: τὰ μετὰ τὰ φυσικά, ta meta ta physika — “the things after the physics”; pronounced meh-tah-ta-phy-si-KAH).
The name is a librarian’s label for the books that followed Aristotle’s lectures on nature. The work itself is older than the label: what kind of world is this? Mind and matter? God and creation? Chance only? A plot you will not name is still a plot. You will smuggle it.
On this site metaphysics is the plot — the kind of world this is. Skip it and every later question is theater: you test claims in a story you refused to admit.
It is not the same job as ontology. Metaphysics names the kind of world. Ontology lists what you will allow to exist inside it.
See also: Ontology Epistemology Logic